• James Brett Case, Paul W Rothlauf, Rita E Chen, Zhuoming Liu, Haiyan Zhao, Arthur S Kim, Louis-Marie Bloyet, Qiru Zeng, Stephen Tahan, Lindsay Droit, Ma Xenia G Ilagan, Michael A Tartell, Gaya Amarasinghe, Jeffrey P Henderson, Shane Miersch, Mart Ustav, Sachdev Sidhu, Herbert W Virgin, David Wang, Siyuan Ding, Davide Corti, Elitza S Theel, Daved H Fremont, Michael S Diamond, and Sean P J Whelan.
• Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Sep 9; 28 (3): 475-485.e5.

AbstractAntibody-based interventions against SARS-CoV-2 could limit morbidity, mortality, and possibly transmission. An anticipated correlate of such countermeasures is the level of neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which engages with host ACE2 receptor for entry. Using an infectious molecular clone of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) expressing eGFP as a marker of infection, we replaced the glycoprotein gene (G) with the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 (VSV-eGFP-SARS-CoV-2) and developed a high-throughput-imaging-based neutralization assay at biosafety level 2. We also developed a focus-reduction neutralization test with a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 at biosafety level 3. Comparing the neutralizing activities of various antibodies and ACE2-Fc soluble decoy protein in both assays revealed a high degree of concordance. These assays will help define correlates of protection for antibody-based countermeasures and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, replication-competent VSV-eGFP-SARS-CoV-2 provides a tool for testing inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 mediated entry under reduced biosafety containment.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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